The invention relates to sewing machines in general, and more particularly to improvements in sewing machines with fabric guides. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in sewing machines with adjustable fabric guides.
The making of a row of stitches at a desired distance from the edge of a fabric which is being treated in a sewing machine necessitates the utilization of a fabric guide. U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,090 to Hanyu et al. discloses an adjustable fabric guide in the form of an inverted U-shaped yoke which can be held on the leg of a sewing machine by friction and can be shifted by hand to position its fabric stop at a selected distance from the needle. If an operator of the sewing machine desires to move the stop of the shiftable fabric guide to a position at a selected distance from the needle, such operator is compelled to guess and make a coarse adjustment, use a ruler to measure the distance of the stop from the needle, and thereupon make at least one additional adjustment if the initially selected distance is unsatisfactory. This is a time-consuming operation which is rendered more difficult if the yoke is held in engagement with the arm exclusively by friction, i.e., if the frictional engagement between the yoke and the arm must suffice to prevent accidental shifting of the yoke while the sewing machine is in actual use and the edge of a piece of fabric which is being treated abuts the stop. The measurement is particularly difficult if the stop is to be located at a relatively short or very short distance from the needle.